Stevens Point school district panel tackles questions about student safety

STEVENS POINT - Mental health, violence prevention and the welfare of people of color were the hot topics Wednesday evening during a panel discussion held in response to a string of threats made in the Stevens Point Area Public School District in December.

Police, fire, school and health officials were present in the Stevens Point Area Senior High auditorium to take questions that were submitted by people in advance and from the about 100 people who attended the discussion on school safety.

Threats in schools are nothing new, said Craig Gerlach, Stevens Point Area Public School District superintendent.

"What's different today is the frequency of these things," Gerlach said.

In December, the district closed Ben Franklin Junior High School one day after multiple threats were found in the school. SPASH released students from school early the same day after threats also were found there. There was no actual danger, but officials had to take the threats seriously, Gerlach said.

The school district has put a lot of energy into making the schools safe, Gerlach said. Visitors to schools have to be buzzed in, security cameras provide video surveillance and an alarm system immediately summons police in the event of an emergency, he said.

There were about 40 questions sent in advance to the school district for panelists to address, said Brian Casey, district director of technology, who moderated Wednesday's panel discussion. The first question Casey read asked how students can feel safe after threats like those found in December.

School staff members try to make students feel the staff is responsive to their needs, said Jon Vollendorf, SPASH principal.

The police departments and Portage County Sheriff's Office increases its presence in the schools following an incident, Portage County Sheriff Mike Lukas said. The departments let media know the additional officers will be there and why, Lukas said.

The schools also run drills on a regular basis to provide students with practice on what to do in emergencies said Cory Hirsbrunner, director of elementary education.

Another question Casey read centered on the mental health of students and what is being done to help them. .

There are a growing group of children who have mental health issues, Gerlach said. There is a shortage of resources in central Wisconsin for students who have a mental illness, he said. Even if the school district were to budget for more counseling positions, it would be difficult to fill them.

Ascension is bringing mental health experts into the schools to meet with students who need help, said Pam Beyer, Ascension psychologist. This allows students who have no way to get transportation to appointments a way to get help, she said.

Stevens Point police have gone to crisis intervention training to learn to understand the difficulties for people with mental health issues and the best way for officers to help them, Stevens Point Police Chief Mart Skibba said. The district has a full-time crisis intervention officer, Skibba said.

Portage County District Attorney Louis Molepske said none of the people arrested in Portage County for school threats from October through December had a mental health issue cause the actions.

Many of the questions asked Wednesday were about students of color and how they are treated by police, staff members and other students.

The Stevens Point Police Department recently hired an officer who told Skibba one of the reasons he wanted to be a police officer was because of his experience with how a school liaison officer handled a race issue when the new officer was a student, Skibba said

It's difficult to deal with cultural awareness when you're living in a predominantly white community, Gerlach said.

"I know we need to do a better job," Gerlach said. "We need to hire staff of color, but it's very difficult to do that."

Gerlach said the school should create safe zones for the students where they can feel safe and not judged.

The panel also fielded some questions regarding how to prevent bomb threats and other scares like those the district saw in December.

One of the school's biggest assets is the community, Gerlach said. When parents are having difficulties, they need to speak up and ask for help. When students see something, they need to feel safe reporting it to the appropriate staff members, he said.

A student who gets caught making a bomb threat or other type of threat will have to deal with being expelled from school, Gerlach said. Threats like that make continuing their education difficult for them and for school staff members, he said.

Molepske said students need to know there are consequences for their actions. A student should know that future employers will look at their records and some jobs might be difficult to get if they are convicted of a felony or adjudicated as a juvenile for a crime that would be a felony, if they had been convicted as an adult, Molepske said.

Juvenile files are sealed, but they can be accessed by prosecutors and looked at by others in specific situations, Molepske said. Students also must realize that they can never use a firearm if they're found guilty of a felony or the juvenile equivalent, Molepske said.

Keeping students safe is a top priority for the school district, Gerlach said. The community can't always know everything that occurs following a bomb threat or similar incident because of laws regarding student confidentiality, but the community should know it is taken seriously by school administrators.